I read the arguments people put forward about the disposal of the batteries when the car is finished. Well, the good news is that the batteries can be re-purposed and battery technology is improving. Not only do the Nissan Leafs have the smallest batteries that electric vehicles are ever going to have, the capacity is also improving. If you bought a Nissan leaf 24 km/hour battery after about 10 years of use that might be down to 50% state of health and be only 12 kWh of capacity. 12 kWh is still quite a bit of electric storage and can be repurposed as a storage battery for solar power capture in your domestic house. New batteries such as those produced by Tesla and BYD are showing a much smaller rate of degradation. So, a 70-kWh battery from the Tesla may take up to 20 years to drop down to 35 to 40 kW of remaining energy storage in that case that car is still capable of probably well over 200 to 300 km in range. I’d imagine that they’d still be a great buy in the second-hand market. Still very much usable for cars bought by younger people entering the car market. On top of that, an electric motor does last longer than a petrol combustion engine ever could.

The electric revolution is coming, it will affect us all and life with an EV vehicle will be a little different. No more visiting a petrol station and shelling out $150 to fill up the tank! Park at home and plug your car in. So, what are the basics about how you charge one of these cars?

There are two ways of charging your electric vehicle, the most common is AC charging which is your normal three-pin socket at home. I sell loads of the three-pin charger that plugs into your wall. This will charge the average car about 10 to 11 km/h. An overnight charge could put in maybe 90 km’s range on your car. And for a lot of people that’s gonna be plenty and I know that because I’ve sold just over 12,000 of those charges to people all around New Zealand Australia and the South Pacific. Another option for charging at home is using a caravan charger or socket and you can charge your car at 16 A/ hour. That works out 3.6 kW an hour or 20 to 23 k’s an hour, which is pretty good and doesn’t cost a lot of money. I’m selling NZ compliant EVSE because the Japanese domestic charger customers get with a Japanese imported EV vehicle is not compliant in New Zealand. I ensure that my EV Power products are manufactured in a way that ensures they do comply with NZ regulations.

I would recommend getting a wall charger for your home. It’s kinder to your domestic wiring. My EV Power wall chargers charge your car up to 32 Amps. This means a wall charger can charge your car close to 400 km overnight. Those big DC charges that you see around town are faster, possibly a bit more convenient but 2 1/2 times the price of doing it yourself. Very handy if you’re going away or you’re in need of a quick pick up a lot more expensive than doing it at home and charging yourself. I’ve noticed that more of these have been installed in the country this year – currently, these go from 50 kW/h all the way up to the hyper-charger which will charge a car at 350 kW/h. A late-model Tesla could charge at nearly 1000 km/h. Imagine being able to charge your modern EV 300 km in a quarter of an hour or thereabouts. A car with that fancy technology isn’t available to the masses yet, but it is coming. Hyundai has a vehicle coming that will charge that speed and will travel for nearly 600 km on a charge.

At OEM Wholesale we make time to talk with our EV owners about their situation, and we use simple, well-known terminology accepted internationally. EVCharging101 starts with plugs. Every EV owner needs to understand that when you charge your electric cars at home (on AC charge) there is only two types of plug – Type One and Type Two. Type One is used primarily in Japan and United States, so if you import a Nissan leaf it will have a Type One plug on it. If the car is sold here in New Zealand the car will come with a Type 2 plug.